Democracy NOW! - As our broadcast went to air, lawmakers in Greece were voting on — and later approved — a new round of sweeping austerity measures amidst a general strike that's brought tens of thousands into the streets. Riot police have fired volleys of tear gas, smoke bombs and stun grenades in a bid to clear the masses of Greek protesters surrounding the parliament in Athens. The chaotic standoff began Tuesday when police stormed the adjacent Syntagma Square, where demonstrators have camped for over a month. Democracy Now! producers Aaron Maté and Hany Massoud were there just as the unrest broke out and spoke to many of the demonstrators who refused to leave the square. "They sell our country," said one protester. "They sell our national dignity ... they have signed away ... our constitution!" Another person said, "We need the solidarity of working class people and youth from around the globe. The only way to stop the cuts, the attacks and austerity packages is by struggling, this includes everything, strikes, demonstrations, occupations of squares and uniting the different movements from around the world."

The Greek government has voted in favour of a new round of austerity cuts - securing the next multi-billion instalement of cash from the EU and staving off a default. But furious protesters have reacted violently to the vote, with battles between police and demonstrators continuing just meters from Parliament. Scenes from downtown Athens resemble a warzone - as protesters fought with riot squads amid volleys of tear gas. Hundreds of thousands of people nationwide walked off their jobs for a two day strike against the austerity cuts

The Greek government has voted in favour of a new round of austerity cuts - securing the next multi-billion instalement of cash from the EU and staving off a default. But furious protesters have reacted violently to the vote, with battles between police and demonstrators continuing just meters from Parliament. Scenes from downtown Athens resemble a warzone - as protesters fought with riot squads amid volleys of tear gas. Hundreds of thousands of people nationwide walked off their jobs for a two day strike against the austerity cuts. They say drowning the country in debt at crippling interest rates has failed once - and it'll fail again. For more on what the vote means for Greece and the EU RT talks to financial journalist Demetri Kofinas.

I was around Vasilissis Sofias street yesterday afternoon, and all of a sudden I saw an army of motorcycles, there must have been 500 of them, all driving past us. One would have thought a coup was happening. [ via A Letter From The Greek Rioters.]

Amidst mass protests and an historic 48-hour strike, one ‘no’ vote by a Greek MP could tip Greece into bankruptcy and the world into global financial meltdown.

The eyes of the world are on Greece. Or, to be more specific, on Syntagma Square, where 300 MPs prepare for a crucial vote on the EU-IMF imposed austerity package — and where hundreds of thousands of Greeks will converge to stop the vote from being passed in the country’s first 48-hour strike since the fall of the dictatorship.

There is an uneasy tension in the air in Athens. Just yesterday, Communist protesters stormed the Acropolis and unfurled a giant banner calling for a massive organized counterattack. Today, over 5,000 policemen have mobilized in central Athens to prepare for an epic stand-off with hundreds of thousands of striking workers and indignants.

What is going on in Athens right now is truly historic. Indeed, superlatives aside, it is nearly impossible to describe the gravity of the situation at hand. What happens in the next 48 hours in Athens will determine the fate of the entire eurozone, the EU and — indeed — the world economy as a whole. This is the very climax of the eurocrisis.

A former senior C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him.

Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who writes an influential blog that criticized the war.

In an interview, Mr. Carle said his supervisor at the National Intelligence Council told him in 2005 that White House officials wanted “to get” Professor Cole, and made clear that he wanted Mr. Carle to collect information about him, an effort Mr. Carle rebuffed. Months later, Mr. Carle said, he confronted a C.I.A. official after learning of another attempt to collect information about Professor Cole. Mr. Carle said he contended at the time that such actions would have been unlawful.

It is not clear whether the White House received any damaging material about Professor Cole or whether the C.I.A. or other intelligence agencies ever provided any information or spied on him. Mr. Carle said that a memorandum written by his supervisor included derogatory details about Professor Cole, but that it may have been deleted before reaching the White House. Mr. Carle also said he did not know the origins of that information or who at the White House had requested it.

Intelligence officials disputed Mr. Carle’s account, saying that White House officials did ask about Professor Cole in 2006, but only to find out why he had been invited to C.I.A.-sponsored conferences on the Middle East. The officials said that the White House did not ask for sensitive personal information, and that the agency did not provide it.

Yes, today begins a new order. Your lands, your possessions,Your very lives will be gladly given in tribute to me.In return for your obedience, you will enjoy my generous protection.In other words, you will be allowed to live.

[Verse 1]Yo,Freedoms been overthrown by Skull and Bones scroll and key,Lunatics, upside down crucifix on their rosary,It's the home of the brave, land of the supposed free,And Trilateral Commission expeditions overseas,Opposing me's a socially accepted secret known to me,The Jason Group mistakes the truth as its golden fleece,Am I supposed to believe masons who have a mixture,Of Satan and Catholic scripture, traded some gas to Hitler?Should I believe when your forefather's Jack the Ripper?And you worship statues in the forest to practise Wicca,I seen it unfold, summer season, reading a scroll,Translating masons speakin' in code at Bohemian Grove,Prince Bernard of the Netherlands left some evidence,And the Bilderberg chose our presidents ever since,Veteran Illuminati invaded the Scottish Rite,Denounced god and Christ, worshipped man, and forgot the light,So I got to fight, coz' I don't care how it sounds,The CIA planted C4 to bring the towers down,Planes hit, a weapon's born trackin' us with Echelon,When a video exists of a missile hitting the pentagon,What a masterpiece, the past repeats, it's never gone,In daddy's footsteps junior re-enacts Desert Storm,Like let's get it on, act righteous, cause a fast crisis,Double gas prices and blame the fact we tax-hyped it,But observing optics can see through a vermin's logic,To just turn a profit and fatten Halliburton's pockets,Making Satan's fire lakes out a higher place,So this time I break, there's only so much I can take.

[Hook x2]Here's the truth, we the people have been seeing your attempts,And realized we the ones you declared war against,Here's the truth, I refuse to have you controlling me,With my faith in a bunch of snakes I just don't believe,

[Verse 2]The holy Roman crown is sacred and it seems the House of David,Left Black Nobility and Jesus somehow related,Black don't refer to the colour of these cowards faces,Their powder pasted skin makes them the proudest racists,Illuminated lineage on lonely chromosomes,Known for seeking the return of the holy Roman throne,Committee of 300 call the shots close to home,Tappin' in your mobile phones, matchin' up your vocal tones,It's your darkest belief, started with Harvard's elite,And Yale's fraternal orders marketing the mark of the beast,Deceiving as a demon playing the part of a priest,Habsburg's causing famine while we starve in the streets,Old School psychology basing fate on numerology,The newest colony and Lucifer's future prophecyIn aristocracy with souls in the devils hands,And architecture plans, city streets designed as pentagrams,Hidden cams on every inch of this blessed land,A Verichip GPS attached to your genetic strands,But I'll be damned if I allow some coward to drown me,In the powers he proudly learned from Aleister Crowley,Coz' outta' my county on the turnpike, word life,There's Nazi propaganda promoting Bush's Third Reich,Turn right at the left wing and find these coke leaders,Then expose FEMA before you take The Fall like colt severs,No Geneva Convention peace treaty will be safe,When the elite make a one world government police state,I know y'all relate and even I hope I'm wrong,But I know I'm not, coz' I know what the fuck is going on.[Hook x2]

Given that the Greeks invented democracy, it's only fitting that they're now being given the chance to reinvent it. And yes, I know we Greeks have a reputation for mythmaking and drama -- but, as I found out during my trip to Greece last week, those really are the stakes.

Until I went over and witnessed what's happening, I too had become convinced that the real issues were the ones the media were obsessively covering: the effects of a potential sovereign default on the Euro and worries about the crisis spreading to other European countries.

But here's the bigger issue: Can a truly democratic movement break the stranglehold of corrupt elites and powerful anti-democratic institutional forces that have come to characterize not just the politics of Greece, but most Western democracies, including our own? Greece is only an extreme example of an unfolding seismic social shift that is challenging democracies the world over.

What happens in Greece might very well tell us whether democracy will recover from the crisis of legitimacy exacerbated by the financial crisis or whether it will shrink -- undermined by the very forces that brought on the crisis in the first place.

It's way too early to tell whether the forces of democracy will prevail, but I came away extraordinarily moved and heartened by the courage, passion, engagement and dedication I witnessed during a trip in which three different perspectives converged.

First and foremost, there was The Square.

The happenings in Cairo's Tahrir Square led the news for weeks earlier this year, but from what we are being shown back in America, you wouldn't know that there's a remarkably similar scene unfolding in Athens. Not only are the physical setting, the demographics of the participants, and the way they're being organized similar to Tahrir Square, but so are the demands being made. In Athens, the place of the moment attracting thousands of people a day is Syntagma Square, situated directly across from the Greek parliament.

When do we own up to reality? 500%? 600%? 1,000%? Do we just keep lending them more and more money and pretending they are not in default? Before you say, that's ridiculous, keep in mind THAT's JUST WHAT THE U.S. IS DOING NOW! That's right, I fooled you - who cares about Greece and their silly $400Bn total debt when the US is borrowing $140Bn PER MONTH! Wake up America - Greece is the distraction of the moment because it's THIS country, America, that has REAL PROBLEMS, not Greece.

Greece can just default. If Greece defaults, they wipe out their debts and they simply can't borrow more money but, at this point, any cutbacks the Government has to make and any taxes the Government has to impose are nothing compared to what is being asked of them to service their debts. Not only that, but if Greece defaults, then that money stays in Greece, rather than the Greek people putting in all their efforts to fill the vaults of European Bankers and PIMCO.

FAIR USE NOTICE

This blog may contain videos with copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Roots

Revelation 13

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy...

...And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?...

Mark 13

And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.